ITRC reports 2009 data breaches.

• Position: DATA SECURITY - Identity Theft Resource Center

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) Breach Report recorded 498 data breaches in 2009, down from the 657 reported in 2008. But while the number of breaches may be falling, more and more records are comprised in those breaches each year--more than 222 million in 2009 alone.

Highlights of the ITRC's report include the following:

* Paper breaches accounted for nearly 26% of known breaches (an increase of 46% from 2008).

* The business sector jumped from 21% to 41% of reported breaches from 2006 to 2009, marking the fifth year in a row breaches in this sector have increased.

* Malicious attacks surpassed human error as a cause of breaches for the first time in three years.

* Of 498 breaches, only six of the affected entities reported they had either encryption or other strong security features in place protecting the exposed data.

* U.S. government and military organizations experienced 82 breaches in 2009, compared to 110 in 2008. However, fewer than three million records were hacked in 2008, while breaches compromised around 80 million records in 2009.

* The financial and medical industries, perhaps because of tighter regulations, recorded the lowest percentage of breaches.

* Of all records lost last year, 46% can be traced to contractors.

According to the ITRC Breach Report, more than 222 million potentially compromised records in 2009 were recorded. Of those, 200 million stem from two very large breaches, including credit card processing firm Heartland Payment Systems and the...